Florida Man Creates 40 Frivolous Ballot-Qualified Parties

During the period June-August 2010, Josue Larose, a 30-year old resident of Deerfield Beach, Florida, created 40 new political parties, and has registered them with the Florida Secretary of State. He is state chair of all of them. None of them is running any candidates this year. Larose himself is a registered Republican. Here is a short news story about him from 2009. This original post on this subject said he formed 39, but the commenter below is correct; Larose created 40.

Larose earlier had created and registered 160 Political Action Committees. He had been a write-in candidate for U.S. House, 19th district, in the April 13, 2010 special election, but according to official results, received zero votes in that race. He had also run as a write-in candidate in a special election for State Senate, 28th district, in the August 4, 2009 special election, and had received seven votes. He is a declared write-in candidate for Governor of Florida. He says he is also a write-in candidate for U.S. Senate, but he can’t register as a write-in for that office, because Florida won’t let anyone run for two offices simultaneously.

The bylaws for his political parties provide that the party chair be escorted by armed bodyguards at all times and that the party provide him with a limo and a private jet.

The Florida Secretary of State’s office will probably ask the legislature next year to provide that when someone qualifies a political party, that person must be a registered member of that party. Florida already requires nominees of political parties (for office other than President) to be registered members of the party that nominated the person, so this would be a minor change that would prevent anyone from keeping a current registration of more than a single political party (in other words, if a person qualifies one party and then leaves it to form another one, the qualification of the first party would be canceled). Here is a story that mentions that Larose has formed 39 political parties. Thanks to Darcy Richardson and Austin Cassidy for this news.

going to the FL site, my count is 40 parties created by LaRose, all of the “American [group] Political Party” style, which also limits their ability to get unintentional registrants. And they seemingly all have their own gmail address.

Wonder if any other parties get whacked if the chairman has to be a member

Technically, I think he could run for both at the same time – as long as one is Federal and the other is state. At least, I thought that’s what they changed the laws to. But I see he’s registered as a write-in for Senate in 2012.

California is a fusion state, but fusion is tough to achieve. If a candidate wins a primary of a party that he or she is not a member of, by write-in votes, then that candidate will appear on the November ballot with two party labels. Of course those are the pre-2012 rules. The last fusion presidential candidate in California was Wendell Willkie in 1940. He appeared on the November ballot as “Republican, Townsend.” The Townsend Party was a ballot-qualified party only in California.

Comment #10 is misleading. I think Jim means they may make a statement in the Voters Pamphlet. Parties don’t have sample ballots. The government sends sample ballots but parties cannot make any commentary on any ballot, whether a sample ballot or a real ballot.

Fusion exists for president in about half the states. Fusion exists for other office in some form in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania (certain offices only), South Carolina, Vermont.

#12 California does not comply with Section 13303 of its own Elections Code?

Your attention is also directed to Elections Code 9083.5(b) (new with SB 6), and 13302 (as amended by SB 6).

Your legal case, as weak as it is, rests on the sample ballot provisions. Otherwise, “qualified” political parties do not “participate” in primaries for voter-nominated offices in any meaningful sense of the word, rendering Elections Code 338 moot with respect to elections for voter-nominated offices.